Sunday, July 29, 2012

Peter's Grand Entrance

A little story about the newest addition to our family via timeline:

Wednesday, July 18
- All day long I was feeling very mild and inconsistent contractions.  It's more than I'd been feeling, so I was hopeful that this might be the day!
- 8:00 pm - Matt went with the Young Men and Young Women on a hike, and I called to tell him that if there was anyone who needed to come back early, he should volunteer to go back with them rather than stay the whole time.
-10:00 pm - Still feeling contractions but I was wanting them to get going, so we decided to go for a walk.  While we were out, the contractions were stronger but still far apart.  I still thought things might pick up, so I got ready for bed to get a little rest in case we were going to be up all night.
-11:00 pm - Contractions 10 minutes apart.

Thursday, July 19
-12:00 am - Contractions 7 minutes apart.
-12:30 am - Contractions 3 minutes apart.  Let's go to the hospital!  We said goodbye to my mom and got in the car.  On the way there, I felt every bump in the road, and labor went into fast-forward-crazy-strong-contraction mode.  I couldn't tell where one ended and the next began.
-1:00 am - Reached the hospital and walked inside.
-1:10 am - Checked in and we were led to our room.  The on-call doctor was paged when they discovered I was dilated to 10 cm, but he wasn't answering.  The nurses were getting the room and equipment ready.  I just barely got myself on the bed when I needed to push.  The nurses said to try and not push (yeah right).  Five seconds later, I said, "I can't NOT push.  Here he comes!"
-1:23 am - Peter Grant Orton came into the world, slip n' slide style, with no one to catch him except the hospital bed.  The nurses looked at each other for a couple of seconds, a little bewildered that there was a baby there.  The doctor finally showed up to help finish up.  I think I should get a discount for delivering my own baby!

Peter Grant Orton
8 pounds 15 ounces
21 1/4" long

  
The rest is blissful brand-new-baby history.  My dear friend Carrie came to visit and brought her camera along.  I'm ever thankful to her for capturing the most tender images of little Peter just hours after being born.




My personal favorite.  I get weepy when I look at it, remembering cuddling my baby boy in a few moments of a quiet afternoon.

6 comments:

Kristen said...

Congratulations! He is adorable. Another successful middle of the night delivery! Hope you're recovering well.

Kelsie said...

Wow--it was a grand entrance! Were you planning on a natural delivery or was that part a surprise? Peter looks so sweet ... congratulations to your family of five!

Carrie said...

Congrats! He's so adorable and you are one tough mama!

Vivian said...

Congratulations!!! What a fantastic birth story! I'm soo glad he came out on the soft bed. Let me know if I can help with anything!

Darren and Brandi said...

Congrats Jen! We're so excited for you guys. I can't believe how quickly everything went! That's insane. Glad he's here and doing well!

Lori said...

How did I not see this until now?! Goes to show that it never pays to let yourself get backed up on blog looking/commenting. I LOVE birth stories and this is a simply wonderful one. Way to nail it Jen! You're such a rockstar. I'm so glad it all went optimally well. He is such a doll.